The 2002 Pan-American Advanced Studies Institute School on Quantum Gravity was held at the Centro de Estudios Cientificos (CECS),Valdivia, Chile, January 4-14, 2002. The school featured lectures by ten speakers, and was attended by nearly 70 students from over 14 countries. A primary goal was to foster interaction and communication between participants from different cultures, both in the layman’s sense of the term and in terms of approaches to quantum gravity. We hope that the links formed by students and the school will persist throughout their professional lives, continuing to promote interaction and the essential exchange of ideas that drives research forward. This volume contains improved and updated versions of the lectures given at the School. It has been prepared both as a reminder for the participants, and so that these pedagogical introductions can be made available to others who were unable to attend. We expect them to serve students of all ages well.
Black Holes are still considered to be among the most mysterious and fascinating objects in our universe. Awaiting the era of gravitational astronomy, much progress in theoretical modeling and understanding of classical and quantum black holes has already been achieved. The present volume serves as a tutorial, high-level guided tour through the black-hole landscape: information paradox and blackhole thermodynamics, numerical simulations of black-hole formation and collisions, braneworld scenarios and stability of black holes with respect to perturbations are treated in great detail, as is their possible occurrence at the LHC. An outgrowth of a topical and tutorial summer school, this extensive set of carefully edited notes has been set up with the aim of constituting an advanced-level, multi-authored textbook which meets the needs of both postgraduate students and young researchers in the fields of modern cosmology, astrophysics and (quantum) field theory.
"Considerable change has transpired in the years since the first edition of this book was published, yet the paradox remains - investments in IT-enabled business change are still not being consistently translated into business value. This is the Information Paradox - the conflict between the widely held belief that information, and investment in IT to provide that information, is a "good thing" and the all too frequent reality that we cannot demonstrate a connection between IT investments and business results." "John Thorp and Fujitsu Consulting have continued to work with many clients around the world, implementing the Benefits Realization Approach - a unique, client-tested framework that introduces a benefits-focused mindset. Their experience has led to the understanding that the issues with IT value are merely a symptom of a broader business value problem, and to the development of a new, expanded approach - Enterprise Value Management." "A completely new Afterword outlines this new approach which goes beyond the challenge of IT value to provide a comprehensive value-driven organizational governance process. It builds on the foundation of benefits realization to help organizations manage value in an increasingly uncertain and real-time business environment. It takes readers to a new level of understanding."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Energy, matter and time have been recognised as fundamental entities for nearly 100 years but now a fourth entity, Information, is being viewed in a similar way. Yet although we live in the Information Age, very few books have been written specifically about it. This is the first paradox. This book explores the information within life, the mind and the Universe, demonstrating not only that information is another fundamental entity but that it is the entity from which all the others are built. The Information Paradox will captivate the imagination and further the understanding of readers from senior high school to adult and from all walks of life. This is an adventure not to be missed!
A clear, plain-English guide to this complex scientific theory String theory is the hottest topic in physics right now, with books on the subject (pro and con) flying out of the stores. String Theory For Dummies offers an accessible introduction to this highly mathematical "theory of everything," which posits ten or more dimensions in an attempt to explain the basic nature of matter and energy. Written for both students and people interested in science, this guide explains concepts, discusses the string theory's hypotheses and predictions, and presents the math in an approachable manner. It features in-depth examples and an easy-to-understand style so that readers can understand this controversial, cutting-edge theory.
Based on Prof. Lüst's Masters course at the University of Munich, this book begins with a short introduction to general relativity. It then presents black hole solutions, and discusses Penrose diagrams, black hole thermodynamics and entropy, the Unruh effect, Hawking radiation, the black hole information problem, black holes in supergravity and string theory, the black hole microstate counting in string theory, asymptotic symmetries in general relativity, and a particular quantum model for black holes. The book offers an up-to-date summary of all the pertinent questions in this highly active field of physics, and is ideal reading for graduate students and young researchers.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A landmark volume in science writing by one of the great minds of our time, Stephen Hawking’s book explores such profound questions as: How did the universe begin—and what made its start possible? Does time always flow forward? Is the universe unending—or are there boundaries? Are there other dimensions in space? What will happen when it all ends? Told in language we all can understand, A Brief History of Time plunges into the exotic realms of black holes and quarks, of antimatter and “arrows of time,” of the big bang and a bigger God—where the possibilities are wondrous and unexpected. With exciting images and profound imagination, Stephen Hawking brings us closer to the ultimate secrets at the very heart of creation.
The New York Times–bestselling co-author of Nudge explores how more information can make us happy or miserable—and why we sometimes avoid it but sometimes seek it out. How much information is too much? Do we need to know how many calories are in the giant vat of popcorn that we bought on our way into the movie theater? Do we want to know if we are genetically predisposed to a certain disease? Can we do anything useful with next week's weather forecast for Paris if we are not in Paris? In Too Much Information, Cass Sunstein examines the effects of information on our lives. Policymakers emphasize “the right to know,” but Sunstein takes a different perspective, arguing that the focus should be on human well-being and what information contributes to it. Government should require companies, employers, hospitals, and others to disclose information not because of a general “right to know” but when the information in question would significantly improve people's lives. Of course, says Sunstein, we are better off with stop signs, warnings on prescription drugs, and reminders about payment due dates. But sometimes less is more. What we need is more clarity about what information is actually doing or achieving.
We are living in an age of information. Staggering amounts of information are collected, stored, and widely disseminated. Yet, we may be less informed and less knowledgeable than ever. The paradox of increasing information, yet decreasing knowledge and insight has many possible reasons, some of which are subtle and difficult to identify, and even more difficult to remedy. The fundamental issue is quantity crowding out quality, leading to an abundance of poor quality information which may not be a good substitute for scarce but high quality information. Information is not unique in exhibiting this paradox. There are many other goods that exhibit this unusual characteristic of more being worse than less. Those who eat the most food are rarely the healthiest people, and they may actually be severely deficient in some nutrients. Those who have the most Facebook friends are often the loneliest people. Those who are the busiest are not the most productive. Those who read books and watch television the most are sometimes the least knowledgeable. Information overload is like a raging fire. There is so much heat, yet no useful heat can be extracted from it. Or it is like a raging flood. There is so much water, yet no useful water can come out of it. All of these examples point to the pervasiveness of this paradox, but it is most insidious with information, critical in an information economy, and most difficult to overcome in a modern society dominated by communication technologies. In an information economy, we appear to be shipwrecked, surrounded by an ocean of water, yet dying of thirst! The most obvious reason for the paradox is the substitution problem where the emphasis on quantity shifts the emphasis and resources away from quality. It is costly to produce quality information, and it is difficult to do both quality and quantity. When quality does not pay in proportion to its high cost, quantity wins over. The second reason is the obsolescence problem. Information is not neutral with respect to the physical world, but it is an agent of change. Information is useful precisely because it is used to change the environment and subjugate nature and society to our purposes. But as information is used to change the environment to take advantage of new opportunities, our existing information about the environment becomes obsolete, leading to a loss of information. The net effect may be positive or negative, but increasingly negative as we show, in a fast-changing information-intensive society. The third reason is the competition problem when information is used as a competitive weapon against others, to mislead and confuse others, leading to a loss of knowledge on their part. Information is power, because it can be used to control others and exploit them, by controlling their information sources, and consequently their behavior. But replacing reliable information with distorted and misleading information leads to a net information loss on their part. More importantly, if everybody uses the same tactics, leading to an information war, everybody may end up worse off with significant loss of knowledge and insight by all.
øInformation Environmentalism applies four environmental analytical frameworks _ ecology, Šthe commons�, public choice theory, and welfare economics _ to the information environment. The book neatly captures the metaphorical relationship between the ph
